Thoughts and commentary about the janitorial and office cleaning business.

10/28/2010

I generally try to include, on a regular schedule and built into the monthly price, the "periodic" services that many janitorial firms charge extra for: burnishing (high speed buffing) and refinishing vinyl floors, cleaning and protecting carpet, scrubbing ceramic and grout, and washing windows. Here's why.

Around six months ago, I quoted and started a high-end machine shop (we provide commercial janitorial service in Phoenix AZ). I suggested a twice per month or monthly burnishing with an as-needed refinshing, in both office and shop areas. The area was newly built-out, and the contractor had laid down a quite adequate looking finish, so the client declined; he seemed to think the finish would look good forever, or at least quite a while. I also suggested that he might want to replace the hard plastic chair casters (made for carpeted floors) with something softer, and gave him names of a couple of local caster firms. He passed on that too; $25 or $30 per chair seemed an unnecessary expense, and the casters were brand new, not to be replaced lightly.

Got a call from him last week; he asked what we could do about the ugly black rings developing under the chairs. I suggested that we could 1) scrub the black areas and patch the finish, inexpensively and with mediocre results, 2) scrub and topcoat the entire floor, for more money and with better results, or 3) strip the whole thing, for a lot of money and with good results, except for a bit of dulling where the top layer of vinyl had been ground away. The strip would only cost him a bit more than six months of burnishing, a bit of top-coating, and new casters would have.

Regular burnishing hardens the finish, so it wears less; as-needed top-coating replaces worn-off finish, so you keep the wear on the finish, not the vinyl; and soft casters grind less. Burnishing (and casters) are cheap; stripping is expensive.

Going to strip it. Next week, after the new casters have arrived.

A bit about us:

My firm, CBN Building Maintenance, provides commercial janitorial services in Phoenix AZ and the wider metro area. We've been in business since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security. Our program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling.

We've offered janitorial services in Phoenix since 1974; hold the BBB's A-plus rating; and have long been in the forefront of the industry in environmentally sensitive cleaning for health, safety and security. Our office cleaning program can generally improve Indoor Air Quality, in the size range of most allergens, by a factor of 50%, as reflected in our ongoing IAQ sampling. We also furnish Green Seal certified recycled restroom paper products and janitorial supplies.